Hawks extend contract for operations boss Blunk

After signing team president John McDonough to a contract extension earlier this week, the Chicago Blackhawks did the same for Jay Blunk, the team's senior vice president of Business Operations Jay Blunk.

"Jay deserves a tremendous amount of credit for what has gone on with the Blackhawks business operations over the past two years," McDonough announced Thursday in a release. "He has brought that area to a higher level and will continue to use his innovative and aggressive style to make us better and stronger."

Blunk is currently in his third season with the Blackhawks after spending 22 years in the front office of the Chicago Cubs.

With Blunk, the Blackhawks have entertained 76 consecutive capacity crowds, the franchise's season ticket base has risen to more than 14,000 and merchandise sales have increased by 317 percent.

The Blackhawks became one of professional sports' biggest success stories, in what Forbes.com dubbed "arguably the most remarkable turnaround in the history of sports in the United States."

In 2008-09, the Blackhawks drew more than 1 million fans (1,052,261) for the first time in franchise history, set a league record by attracting an average of 21,783 fans to the United Center and surpassed the franchise regular-season attendance record of 835,972.

Blunk assisted in bringing the NHL Winter Classic 2009 to Wrigley Field, an event that drew 4.4 million U.S. viewers overall, making it the most-watched NHL game in 34 years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In his initial months with the Blackhawks, Blunk worked to secure the radio broadcast rights with new broadcast partner WGN News/Talk 720, in addition to working with the Hawks' marketing department in hiring Ogilvy as the team's new advertising agency and creating the Blackhawks Heritage Series, which honored Blackhawks greats throughout the season, achieving the overall business goal of building a bridge to the heritage of the franchise.

Blunk also led sweeping changes across the Blackhawks' media channels, including the development of Blackhawks TV, the redesign of the Blackhawks' publications and chicagoblackhawks.com.

Blunk has overseen new concepts such as the Blackhawks Training Camp Festival, which includes the "Mad Dash to Madison" run and skate, 3-on-3 street hockey tournament and behind-the-scenes look at a Hawks practice.

Blunk also developed cross-promotional partnerships with both the Cubs and White Sox, as well as a wealth of other civic organizations, which built the foundation for a 12-month-a-year marketing strategy.

A graduate of Illinois State University, Blunk held several marketing, sales, branding, promotions and advertising positions while with the Cubs (1986-2008), the last of which was vice president in charge of marketing and broadcasting. He was responsible for the development of a wealth of promotional events over his more than two decades at Wrigley Field.